


Zeitgeist!

by FrozenHearts



Category: Deadpool (Movieverse), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Acid, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempt at Humor, F/M, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Mentioned Charles Xavier - Freeform, Pietro Maximoff Lives, Post-Canon, Post-Deadpool 2 (2018), Protective Peter Parker, Superheroes, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-17 14:29:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20622566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrozenHearts/pseuds/FrozenHearts
Summary: After the events of Deadpool 2 (whatever Wade was insisting that was) the X-Force team is disbanded and sent to other, already operating teams in hopes of, well, becoming better at their jobs.The Avengers don't exactly know what to do with the new guy, but they'll hopefully make it work.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I looked more into Zeitgeist from Deadpool 2 and honestly I would watch a movie about him, his dynamic as a hero is interesting, very different from what Marvel has presented to us in the past (also I'm on a Bill Skarsgard kick lmfao)

The Avengers didn't think they'd see Deadpool for quite some time; they were hoping for it, actually, as the man was constantly in his own head, never taking things seriously and always shot first, made smart remarks about it later and boo-hooed when nothing could be done to bring them back. They had to admit that he was rather smart and always willing to bend the rules to get the job done and while it was messy, he always got it done. 

So when he managed to put together his own superhero team, comprised of former students of Charles Xavier, the Avengers believed those heroes would finally bring Wade around to, I don't know, possibly being less cocky? Being more of a team player? 

Instead they managed to blow hokes throughout Canada, get locked up in what amounted to a mutant jail and free the Juggernaut but that's okay because Deadpool, some punk goth and her girlfriend and a woman with large hair and larger luck managed to bring Juggernaut down with some orphan who shot fire from his hands.

No thanks to the X-Force, though, as the files revealed the team had powers unable to even immobilize Juggernaut to the point where they did crowd control the best they could. Afterwards, the group was forced to disband, Professor X helping them settle into new, different teams that might help better themselves and their abilities. 

And thus, the Avengers were sitting around, waiting for their newest arrivals. 

"We sure we can take on more members?" Rhodey asked Tony one morning, "I mean, we already have Peter, Wanda and Pietro, not to mention Carol-"

"It never hurts to have more backup," Natasha cut him off, "besides, Wanda and Carol are crazy stupid powerful, it's better they're with us to handle another Loki situation if something like that ever happens again."

"Point taken, but Wanda and Pietro would focus on each other more than anyone else and Peter is a kid," Rhodey pointed out. He ran a finger along the file he was reading, trying to find his spot again, "and if I'm being honest, Carol hasn't set foot on Earth since the nineties, she's still trying to catch up on everything she missed out on while in space."

Natasha pursed her lips, steepling her hands under her chin as she thought about it. Rhodey had a goos point; wanda was still terrified of her powers after the incident in Uganda, with the building and Pietro was.... a handful. Too fast for everyone but he got antsy easily, considering how time was altered ever so slightly from his perspective.

"He's right," Tony piped up, "good ol' Sparkle Fingers isn't even on Earth ninety-nine percent of the time unless she visiting her old co-pilot or her kid." He popped a blueberry in his mouth and it made Natasha wonder where he was keeping them, "Peter has a lot of potential, he made his webs himself after all!"

"Wait, are we talking about the sticky kid who Sam said talks too much?" Rhodey asked, throwing Tony a "I hope you aren't serious" look; it had taken him hours to get the webs out of the War Machine armor when he finally got out of physical therapy. Peter was nuce enough to help him, considering it was hus fault the machinery got so messed up, but still. Natasha hid her laugh with a cough as she said, "Hopefully Wanda and Pietro can help him with that, but Pietro is pretty into the whole quip thing too."

Before Rhodey could say anything the elevator dinged and the doors opened to an obviously excited Peter, followed by Wanda and Pietro, who were quietly arguing about something, their tongues harsh as they spat at each other in Sokovian under their breaths.

"Mr. Stark, sir-" Peter started with a gulp, making Rhodey and Natasha exchange shit-eating grins.

"Kid, I said to call me Tony, I'll tell May again."

Peter rolled his eyes, "She'll just tease me again, but not the point anyway-"

"Let me guess-" Tony cut Peter off, "Science fair? You need help making a super cool project that will blow that Flash kid to dust?"

Peter paused mid-sentence, confused, "Yeah- wait how did you know that?"

"He bugged your phone," Natasha said matter-of-factly, then with the jut of her chin, "What's up with you two?"

Pietro didn't even look ashamed as he proudly exclaimed, "We saw the new recruit outside, Wanda thinks he's very cute!"

At this, Wanda blushed furiously, "I do not! Pietro is lying!"

Tony clicked his tongue, "Aww, Little Witch, Vish will be so hurt-"

Rhodey jabbex his old friend with his elbow, "Stop teasing, man. She's a single young woman she's allowed to go shopping once in a while."

"Go shopping?" Tony scoffed, "You sound like my nanny."

Rhodey shook his head, turning back to the file. Honestly, he'd read it a bunch of times already, but he still couldn't wrap his head around the idea of this guy and what the X-Men teams thought he had to offer them. 

"Yes, go shopping," Rhodey retorted, "it's a perfectly normal phrase, and you all need to get ready to meet the new guy anyway."

Apparently, Tony had failed to mention that a new member was joining the team, as Peter hopped up on one of the bar stools and started badgering them with an assault of questions. Pietro moved to lounge on a chair, amused no doubt by Peter's excitement and from the corner of his eye, Rhodey could see wisps of red dancing around Wanda's fingers.

"No powers to read our minds or whatever that is, Wanda," Rhodey warned her half-heartedly.

"You didn't see that coming?" Pietro laughed from his seat.

"See you're where Peter gets it from," Rhodey jabbed a finger in his direction, "You're all gonna give me a heart attack one day if your last words end up being 'yeet' or some other bullshit."

He heard Wanda snort next to him, but ignored it in favor of re-reading the file. Again. 

"So who is he?" Wanda asked, "I managed to get a quick glimpse, all I know is it's a man."

A rush of air and Rhodey groaned as he found Pietro had sped over and plucked the paper from him, reading it in a split second before announcing "What kind of name is 'Zeitgeist'?"

"Bless you," Natasha piped up from her seat on the couch. Rhodey snatched it back, blunt as he said, "New member. Rogers and Barnes should be by with him soon."

"What about Sam?" Peter asked.

"On a mission with Clint," Natasha explained. 

"Can't say much else about him considering how redacted the file is," Rhodey pointed out the abubdance of blacked out lines, leaving almost nothing left to read save for a code name. According to the other teams the members of X-Force had been sent to, it was very much the same. 

Weird, considering how small the group was to begin with, but that wasn't Rhodey's business anyway. When Bucky and Steve arrived, they'd be able to start and hopefully, the new guy would fit right in. 

\-----

Peter had only been half paying attention when the rest of the Avengers called a meeting, sitting at a table with his homework spread out around him; while the others patiently waited for the supposed new guy to arrive (Wanda had mentioned he was outside, but didn't get a good look at him), he had Pietro and Wanda looking over his shoulder as he tried to finalize the design for his and Ned's science project. They wanted to do something Star Wars theme, like a real life lightsaber, but even with Tony Stark's arsenal at his disposal, he was still having trouble with the mechanics of having the light refract properly from the handle. 

"Vish could just give you the exact calculations, you know," Wanda pointed out as Peter erased his work for what felt like the millionth time. 

"Nuh-uh," Peter bit the inside of his cheek, "It's gotta be me and Ned, or else my classmates will get suspicious."

"Like you tinkering with alien technology in woodshop is not suspicios already?" Pietro chuckled.

"You know what fair point but-"

"You gotta calculate the insulation of the power cell in the base to determine how many prisms you want in the blade."

The room went silent at the new voice, almost bored as they explained the blueprint Peter was having trouble with. Captain America (Peter had to remember it was okay to call him Steve, honestly) was suddenly ramrod straight in his chair, his ever present no-nonsense look plastered on his face. Large eyes were set on a gaunt visage, high cheekbones and surprisingly full lips giving the guy an angelic look. 

"I'm sorry, sir but this is reserved for official members only," Steve rolled out with a no-nonsense air about him. 

The guy shrugged, leaning over and pointing at Peter's blueprints again, "Also if you wanna make it a singular shaft of light make sure the prisms you're using are whole, not cracked."

Peter blinked, "Huh?"

The man shrugged, "You're making a lightsaber, yes?"

Nodding slowly, Peter said "Y-yeah..."

"Well, if you want a clean blade of light for this you need to make sure the prisms stacked in the blade end are not cracked or it will look all deformed when the power cell activates the solar panel just on top of it and underneath the first prism," the guy explained, completely ignoring Steve as he stared down at Peter. 

The silence from everyone else was unnerving, however. Even Pietro was quiet and Peter really was expecting him to say something about how nearly soulless the guy's eyes looked or make fun of the large green plastic device hanging off his neck. Thankfully, after everyone stared at each other for a sufficient amount of time, Tony spoke up, clasping his hands in front of him no doubt in an effort to look business-like.

"As cool as the whole Jared Leto Joker thing you have going in here-" Tony gestured widely to the man's get-up, "I'm afraid you need to set up an appointment with the receptionist for a tour, but thanks for interrupting, really awesome to see people still have no manners."

"Mmmhmmm," the man hummed, sucking in his cheeks and whistling, "and it's cool to see you're still an asshole in real life, not just on the television."

Ohhhh, that was a pretty good burn, Peter wasn't gonna lie. Tony was a great guy, but he could be pretty arrogant when he wanted to be. Natasha was still quiet where she sat next to Tony, gaze unblinking as she scanned him up and down; eventually she leaned back in her seat, a deceptively bored glint in her eye as she pretended to inspect her nails.

"You a spy?" she asked bluntly, making Tony blow a raspberry indignantly as Steve gave her a reprimanding "Natasha!"

Natasha shrugged, "What? We work with S.H.I.E.L.D. and they got infiltrated by HYDRA. You never know."

A flick of a wrist and what looked like a fraying beaded bracelet was tgrown on the table- the cord was yellow, black beads spelling out "X-Force" in white lettering. Peter watched as everyone's faces suddenly morphed, seemingly taking on at least one of the five stages of grief befor they were able to school themselves back to normalcy. 

"Deadpool sent you?" was Natasha's curt question.

"Zeitgeist?" Wanda tried hopefully and the guy winked playfully before gesturing to himself.

"The one and only unfortunately for you," he announced.

"Well... welcome to the team," Tony offered stiffly, "hopefull you won't be as much of a mess up as Deadpool."

Peter exchanged glances with Rhodey; the man looked so confused, it reminded him of that one meme with the blonde lady surrounded by different math formula. Peter could practiamcally see them floating around Rhodey's head as he pulled out the file- heavily edited, Peter remenbered- and put it on the table. 

"File is redacted to the point of non-existence" Rhodey said, "care to explain, 'Zeitgeist'?"

The man cracked his knuckles, licking his lips as he shufted awkwardly from side to side. Peter put down his work to watch, raising an eyebrow when Steve cleared his throat.

"Found out I had powers when I was fourteen," the man said, "Went to Xavier's mutant school. Got a job as a mechanic when I left, then joined Deadpool's team because fuck if there was anything else to do with my skill set, man."

"If it's something dumb like levitating blocks, we could always just put you on my mechanic position at the tower," Tony said before the man could continue, "It'd be nice to have an extra set of hands with my suits-"

"Tony," Natasha warned.

The man chuckled darkly, "I don't think you'd want me working on those."

"Is it 'cause if that thing on your neck?" Tony ignired the jab from Rhodey as he obviously tried getting the guy riled up, "You have gear on already, nice looking mouth guard-"

Swallowing, Peter meekly raised his hand, catching the guy's attention with the wave of his pencil. With those eyes turned on him, Peter thought those bright eyes were boring into him, digging deep until he shivered and yeah, he was definitely gonna have nightmares tonight, but he was curious.

"Mr. Zeitgeist, sir-"

"You can call me Axel, kid," the man nodded, "only one with any manners around here."

"Right, Axel, uh," Peter twisted the pencil nervously in his hands, "What's your superpower?"

"Oh, nothing big, like Mr. Stark just said," Axel narrowed his eyes, looking straight at Tony as he said, "I just spit acid vomit is all."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is not gonna be written all that well because my writing quality tends to fluctuate (as it does) but thanks to anyone still reading this self indulgent garbo i appreciate it

Peter knew he shouldn't have told Ned the next day at school, considering the guy's membership was modt likely only temporary as some sort of rehabilitation program (Axel's annoyed words, not his), but it was too cool not to. Seriously, how many people knew someone who could spit acid vomit for a superpower?

Not that he saw Axel using his powers; for safety purposes, Tony had herded Axel i to one of his and Bruce's labs, Pietro and Wanda distracting him with games of Mario Kart and Star Wars trivia. 

"That's so gross," Ned's face scrunched in disgust, "but so cool! You think he could melt the Iron Man suit with his spit?"

Peter shrugged, "Not that I know of. I do know the melted plastic smell will linger in the tower for weeks it's nasty."

"What's nasty, Parker?" Flash was suddenly shoving Peter from behind, "Your weak ass lies and loser clothing taste?"

Peter raised an eyebrow- honestly, he'd gotten used to Flash's bullying, but even that one was bad. 

"Don't you have a football to kick around or something?" Ned piped up, obviously exasperated.

"Sports got cancelled today, later dweebs!" Flash ran off, laughing as he joined his friends at their lockers, fist bumping and generally being noisy jerks. 

"Anyway," Peter sighed, "I gotta figure out how to get Mr. Stark to let me see it!"

"You need your guy in the chair?" Ned offered hopefully. 

"Maybe," Peter said as the bell rang. He knew Ned loved being his guy in the chair- on missions it was extremely helpful and Peter still held it over Tony's head that Ned managed to hack into his original suit with high school level equipment in an hour before getting caught by the principal.

With Axel, though, he'd have to try something else.

Oh, wait.

Peter slammed his locker shut, "I just remembered- Axel, the new guy- he helped me with the calculations on our science fair project."

Ned's face lit up, "The lightsaber?"

Peter nodded, "Yeah- if he did that, maybe we can convince him to do other stuff? For science, obviously, but-"

"Dude! This is awesome!" Ned exclaimed, "We gotta do it soon!"

Right, Peter mused, following Ned to class, as soon as he figured out how to even see the guy's powers in action.


End file.
